The Red Queen: Grotesque
by A Quarter Past
Summary: Alana Bloom is a fan of Hannibal's work; it's just too bad that he doesn't really understand hers. Meme-fill.


**Note:** My first foray into the Hannibal universe is a meme-fill for the prompt below. It's sort of vague and _almost_ matches up to what the requester wanted (I took a few liberties).

**Prompt:** "Alana has known for years that Hannibal is the Chesapeake Ripper, pursued him as a mentor because of this, and through her own magnificent skills of manipulation, she has hidden this from him. Currently, she's quite impressed of his work with Will".

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The Red Queen/**Grotesque***

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i

When they meet for the first time (officially. she's done her research, quite thoroughly, and already knows who he is), she is certain that she has found a worthy opponent.

Hannibal Lecter is coiled tight on the inside and perfection on the outside, a serpent playing its hand at humanity and, at the moment, succeeding (even now, she has her suspicions about the reality of his nature, but tucks them away in order to hide hers). She's young, wide-eyed and naive, but intelligent and polite and eager to learn. When the title of one of his articles slips from her barely painted lips – she doesn't bother him with trite discussions of the weather – he makes the mistake of dismissing this as easy.

Alana Bloom is bright, he thinks as he invites her to visit him again, in many more ways than one (a beacon of light that effortlessly draws the darkness to it. the sort of beauty that he should keep close – a mask of association – because with friends like her, how can he possibly be mistaken for evil) and might one day be worth the investment.

(she notes, with careful consideration as she's leaving, that his palette favors rich reds and contrasting blues and files that away. in one month, in two, she'll alter her wardrobe to match the colours and patterns he prefers. he'll think it's flattery; she'll know he's wrong. this is the web she weaves, a black widow to his serpent. she knows that over time his regard for her will be based off of how predictable he believes her to be, how dangerous her gifts, and she mustn't allow him to view her as a threat. not yet).

Because although Alana Bloom, unlike Hannibal Lecter, suffers from no compulsions to kill, this does not mean she doesn't have blood on her hands. She dabbles not in death but in ruin (certain minds, like mazes, are easier to navigate than others. easier to twist into inescapable labyrinths, where sanity wanders in far too deep and withers slowly into a husk), and she knows this is why no one, least of all Hannibal, will ever suspect that she is playing the game (until she wants them to).

Hannibal sees her as a pawn that can be queened or sacrificed when he deems it necessary. What he fails to see is that she's already busy setting the board with her own pieces.

ii

It takes her less than three months to understand that she's drawn to him because he has a nasty habit of killing people. Hannibal isn't the Chesapeake Ripper (no one has thought to think up the name. yet) but the devil is only ever in the details.

iii

He begins inviting her to dinner after she receives her final degree, and it's clear to her that he's trying to cultivate the appearance of an affair from without. From within, he's polite and cordial and deliberate, and she wears her naivety like a well fitted glove.

(it takes her several months of these dinners to realize that there is something odd about the food. when Alana figures it out, she decides its time to determine just how far he's willing to go to fulfill his compulsions and grows a new and insatiable appreciation for beer).

iv

Hannibal co-opts her attention from the Ripper case by having her look over PhD candidates, and in her frustration she begins to wonder just what it would take to bring this man to his knees, to break through the careful facade he has built, clear the board he has set and make him scramble for the right counterplay until finally, finally,

endgame.

v

When she is introduced to Will Graham, Alana Bloom thinks that she has just the piece she needs (carefully, very carefully, she begins to maneuver him across the board).

(Hannibal will paint such a wonderful landscape across the void where Will's personality should be, and she her maze, and by the time Hannibal realizes that he's fatally exposed his king, she'll finally have completed her masterpiece).

vi

They are sitting over dinner, just the two of them, discussing Abigail's perpetual spiral downward and Jack's abrasive behavior (but not how he's clearly right about all of this. she must pretend that he isn't, because she still _is not finished_), and not for the first time in all of her years of knowing Hannibal, Alana wonders who the third member of the dinner party is (was). An investment banker that failed to hold open a door? An insurance agent who was too abrupt on the phone? An old patient who had failed to extend a common courtesy?

(no. no. He'd stopped targeting past patients after Miriam, Alana knows this).

She cuts herself a piece of tongue, dips it in the fine red sauce Hannibal drew on her plate before he brought it to her (a stroke of insight tickles the back of her throat, like an inside joke), and openly ponders the location of the missing local radio celebrity.

(surely three weeks worth of accusing Abigail for being an accessory to murder on air couldn't be considered rude, especially since it's the truth, but this is Hannibal and he is becoming a little more unhinged the deeper into the labyrinth he goes).

"I'm sure he's found an audience that can appreciate his unique perspectives."

"And flavor," she adds innocently before taking her first bite.

Hannibal looks pleased (Alana knows why).

vii

When they've caught him with Will's blood on his hands (but not his death), Alana cannot help but be sad that the game, while well played, is now over. Is saddened still that Hannibal never knew who he was ever really playing against.

(during the official arrest – at which she is present and looking _quite_ shaken – it's only when Jack has turned his back after ensuring the cuffs are secure that Alana looks Hannibal in the eyes and smiles, a _checkmate_ silent on her lips. his confusion, like every other expression he chooses to wear, is beautiful but not quite sincere).

viii

She's certain he'll figure it out eventually.

(that he will go through the years ply-by-ply until he's learned that the only mistake he ever really made was underestimating his pieces).

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fin.

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*** Grotesque: A game with an unnatural beginning position – where white (or, in this case red) often has far fewer initial pieces in play than black – a game designed for entertainment and amusement.**


End file.
